Book review: Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard

As I walked to the back door of the library to leave for the night, my eye was caught by the spine of a red hardcover book poking out of some bags of donated books. GIRL MANS UP, the title read. Something pinged vaguely in the back of my mind. Have I heard about this book before? The title sounds familiar. I read the inside flap of the dust jacket, and decided I must have heard about this book from book blogs or bookstagram. I like to keep an ear out for LGBTQ+ books in order to make up for all the straight romances I read growing up. My mind made up, I pulled the book out of the bag and slipped it into my backpack. I'd read it that night and return it in the morning, no one the wiser.

Amazon summary:

All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she’s trying to be a boy—that she should quit trying to be something she’s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty.

But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth—that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up.

I read this book in 1 sitting, as it was a fairly easy and interesting read. Pen is Portuguese and clashes with her traditional immigrant parents all the time. I was angry at their heteronormative and sexist ideas and demands, and their being so controlling. They would not let Pen explain herself and demanded total and unquestioning obedience. Pen's only champion at home is her big brother, whom she looks up to. On the other side, Pen is friends with popular Colby, who uses her to get girls for him, which he then uses and loses. Pen's growing friendship with one of those girls, who ends up in a worst-case scenario because of Colby, threatens him, and it ultimately turns out that Colby feels he has just as much ownership and jurisdiction over Pen as her parents feel they do. Throw in having to deal with homophobia and falling in love with a girl for the first time, and you have lots of issues to deal with.

I enjoyed this book, although of course it made me angry and sad. I was glad that Pen learned how to choose female and male friends that actually cared about her, instead of only being "friends" with douche-y guys who constantly mocked her and made her feel like she had to earn her place in their group. The romance was very sweet, and the whole first love/butterflies in the stomach type stuff was well written. It was also really valuable to have an insight into what it's like to be gender nonconforming, as Pen is a butch lesbian. Despite being a stereotype that gets bandied about, butch voices aren't heard as much, especially in YA. 

Overall, I would recommend this book for teens and up. I don't love the idea of my teen cousins reading about drug use and mentions of sex and fooling around, but ultimately that is already the reality for a lot of teens, or at least their classmates. They can probably handle it ok. 

trigger warnings for this book: nonconsensual semi?-sexual occurances, drug use, sexual harassment, underage sex, abortion, homophobia, transphobia, religious homophobia, sexism, heteronormativity, controlling parents, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, physical violence, gender issues, dysphoria, blood, vomiting mentions

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: January 21
From: library/borrowed
Format: hardcover
Status: returned